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Meet The Movie Villains Everyone Secretly Agrees With

Meet The Movie Villains Everyone Secretly Agrees With

Movie villains are there to make us feel fear, anger and frustration—in other words, every negative emotion that exists. They are the bad guy, and most films make sure that fact is clear to viewers from the get go. When it isn’t, they do a good job of clarifying later on. But just like in the real world, not everything is so black and white, and sometimes the character who is portrayed as the root of all evil, really isn’t. A closer look at the motives that drive some of the most notorious villains in film often reveals that they’re often not all that bad. Read on, and you’ll discover you probably agree with them.

1. Sauron From The Lord Of The Rings

Blasphemy! Every Lord of the Rings fan reading this must be up in arms that the Dark Lord would even come near such a list. And look, they have a point. Sauron is the evil overlord of evil overlords. He tries to destroy all of humanity and elfdom with massive armies of monsters. He sees everything through a giant flaming eyeball. Come on, he even sounds like the devil himself.

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But this way of seeing things is very human-and-elf-centric, and neglects to understand the harsh realities monsters have historically faced in Middle Earth. Before Sauron became their leader, the orcs and goblins that form his army were persecuted freely by men and elves. To them, Sauron must be a benevolent icon.

2. Poison Ivy From Batman & Robin

While Uma Thurman rocked her role as the infamous villain Poison Ivy in Batman & Robin, the general consensus is that the movie itself wasn’t the greatest of the Batman films. Because of that fact, many of us may have missed that Poison Ivy is actually an ardent environmentalist.

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While the rest of humanity is destroying the planet, Ivy is out there using Venom to give plants the ability to protect themselves—when she’s not trying to kill Batman, that is. The people who had access to the substance before her used it to create Bane. Ivy’s approach is at least good for something!

3. Dr. Otto Octavius From Spider Man 2

Dr. Octopus needs no introduction. Otto Octavius became the main villain in Spider Man 2 after his benevolent attempt to create a limitless energy supply went awry. Throughout the film, the “good” doctor is shown wreaking havoc across New York City. Not cool.

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On an intellectual level, though, the doctor’s goal is a noble one. A reactor with that kind of power could help the world advance exponentially, and he put his heart into it. It’s too bad those A.I. arms were so aggressive. In the end, when Octavius realized his machine had gotten out of control, he did the right thing and helped save New York from the mess he unintentionally created.

4. Henri Ducard From Batman Begins

Secretly Ra’s Al Ghul, Henri Ducard is the man who trains Bruce Wayne in the skills that would ultimately turn him into Batman, so he can’t be all that bad. Right? The answer depends on your philosophy. The man does, after all, try to weaponize a dangerous hallucinogen to make the people of a major city go crazy and kill each other off. Villain much?

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O.K., so he’s not exactly in league with Martin Luther King, Jr. or Ghandi. But to Ducard, Gotham is a scourge on the rest of the world, infested with crime bosses and small-time criminals alike. And Batman’s efforts never exactly solve that problem, unless you consider the city being held hostage by a psychopathic clown to be progress. Ducard was thinking about the big picture.

5. Thanos From The Avengers

On the face of it, the Mad Titan is totally mad. His plan in Avengers: Infinity War to hunt down the Infinity Stones in order to wipe out half of the world’s population is as horrifying as anyone’s worst nightmare—but that’s only from the human perspective. Has anyone ever considered this villain’s motives?

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To Thanos, human beings are running amok with overpopulation, famine and disease—and that’s something with which many would probably agree. Thanos isn’t some kind of maniac that destroys for his personal enjoyment. He genuinely believes his cause can cure the universe of its many ills. To him, human beings are merely collateral damage.

6. Mystique From the X-Men Films

Shape-shifter Mystique becomes a villain the moment she throws in with Magneto, the X-Men films’ main antagonist. The idea is she rejects Professor X’s philosophy of mutants co-existing peacefully with the rest of humanity, instead opting for Magneto’s much more extremist approach.

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While the X-Men films frame the Professor’s side as good and Magneto’s as evil, a closer look reveals the conflict between the two parties comes down to a genuine difference of opinion in how to interact with a population that largely views mutants as dangerous. In Mystique’s case, she’d been abused her entire life by law enforcement, politicians and everyday folk. It’s not so surprising she lacks sympathy for non-mutants, and is pretty relatable at that.

7. Col. Nathan R. Jessup From A Few Good Men

Jack Nicholson’s Oscar-winning performance as Marine Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men saw his character violently, and illegally, punishing a Marine, which results in the man’s death. It’s hard to watch someone die like that, even if it’s just in a movie. As such, Jessup is seen as a villain.

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The other side of the story is that the Marine in question, Private William Santiago, is an overall disaster to his unit. He violates the chain of command more than once and makes life harder for his commanding officers and fellow marines. Jessup’s goal isn’t to kill Santiago when he punishes him, he’s just trying to discipline him. That’s not to say Jessup doesn’t deserve to go to prison for his illegal behavior, but he’s not an all-around bad guy.

8. The Principal From Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Quite possibly one of the most annoying villains of all time, Ed Rooney is the dean of students who takes his job a little too seriously, chasing Ferris Bueller all over Chicago after he skips school. Watching the film, you can almost see yourself in Bueller’s shoes—like, really, could Rooney just give it a rest?

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But let’s not forget the man was literally just doing his job. Bueller had become a serial school-skipper, tarnishing his academic career and convincing his friends to join in his shenanigans. As the dean said of the troublemaker in the movie, “he gives good people bad ideas.” Facts are facts.

9. Alexander Conklin From The Bourne Identity

It’s pretty clear why CIA spook Alexander Conklin was seen as the villain in The Borne Identity. He spends the entire film trying to kill beloved hero Jason Borne. Just from a purely emotional standpoint, the guy comes across as the very embodiment of pure evil.

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But there’s another side to this story. One has to remember that all Conklin knew was that Bourne didn’t complete his mission and was acting erratically—in his eyes, Bourne couldn’t be controlled. As such, the man was seen as a liability to the CIA and therefore a threat to the United States. Bourne had to be dealt with, and it was Conklin’s job to take care of him.

10. The Wicked Witch Of The West From The Wizard Of Oz

Yes, we went there. The Wicked Witch of the West is not the villain everyone makes her out to be. Sure, she looks hideous, has green skin and cackles like a demon. She also fully intended to get Dorothy, and her “little dog, too!”

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But have you ever thought to consider why she decided to go after Dorothy and gang? Like, come on, people. From her perspective, Dorothy literally killed her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, and stole her slippers. In fact, that’s all the Witch wanted—her slippers! It’s not like she was trying to take over the world.

11. Tyler Durden From Fight Club

Tyler Durden, the nefarious half of Jack’s broken psyche, is one movie villain that is just so lovable you tend to forget he’s the villain throughout the film. In fact, it’s only really revealed he’s a bad guy toward the end of Fight Club, when he leads his followers in something akin to a violent proletariat revolution.

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While Durden’s tactics throughout the film are questionable at best, many see his central grievance as legitimate—that is, the rat race to which everyone in the modern world has grown accustomed has some serious flaws. It’s why many millennials seem to consider Durden a sort of folk hero.

12. Erik Killmonger From Black Panther

In Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger takes up the mantle of fighting the oppression of systemic racism, at a time when awareness of the issue in real life is at an all-time high. It’s why the villain was never exactly hated by Black Panther fans. Marvel is even working on a miniseries that explores the character’s backstory.

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Yes, Killmonger’s plan is to distribute vibranium to what he saw as the oppressed masses, which would undoubtedly spur worldwide chaos and the loss of thousands of innocent lives. But, in his mind, it is a necessary means to bringing about the end of institutionalized racism.

13. The Sith From Star Wars

Considering the fact that the Sith wield the side of the force that is called the “Dark Side,” it’s hard to argue that they are not evil. Okay, their iron-fisted rule of the galaxy under Darth Sidious, with Darth Vader by his side, doesn’t help either. Nor does Vader’s ruthless killing of younglings in the third prequel film.

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But the Sith have a legitimate beef with the Jedi order. While the Jedi claim to represent the force of light, and therefore good, their order has some serious flaws. For one thing, it represses all human emotion with soul-shackling vigor. Jedi are ordered to celibacy. They cannot hate nor love. In the Sith’s view, the Jedi dogma has left civilization stagnant. The Jedi don’t seek good—they seek only balance.

14. President Snow From TheHunger Games

President Snow is so easy to hate. Beyond just being a regular murderer, the man makes literal children fight to the death, firebombs an entire district and tortures Katniss’s boyfriend. In Hunger Games, it just seems like right and wrong is so clearly black and white.

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But, from Snow’s point of view, Katniss and her rebellion were screwing things up. Things were totally stable and, in his view, peaceful until she came around and began a major rebellion that was killing people. All Snow was doing was trying to bring back order and prevent chaos. He even tried to warn her that the president that would succeed him, Coin, wouldn’t bring about any kind of change either.

15. President Bennett From Clear And Present Danger

When taking a step back at some of these films, they really can conjure up some intense philosophical debates. Clear and Present Danger is one such film. In the film, William Moffat’s President Bennett makes everyone’s blood boil by encouraging an illegal war and ensuring he’s not held responsible for it.

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Still, it’s important to keep in mind that the fight itself is a noble one. This wasn’t an example of the United States invading a country to ward off some distant ideology—it was a matter of national security. The biggest drug cartel in the world is poisoning America in this film, and Bennett wasn’t going to take it lying down.

16. Senator Robert Kelly From X-Men

Senator Robert Kelly is a major proponent of the Mutant Registration Act, which would require everyone with super-human abilities in the United States to register with the government. From the mutants’ point of view in X-Men, such a move is a fascist infringement of their individual liberty, and the film is sympathetic to their cause. He is therefore presented as a villain.

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On the flip side, though, we are after all talking about super-humans who are able to move cars with their minds and level entire cities in an instant. It’s totally reasonable for Kelly to want to regulate their activities—or at least know which ones are out there.

17. Steve Hadley From The Cabin In The Woods

Listen, the man sent actual monsters to attack teenagers—there’s nothing admirable about it. That’s especially true considering he made them suffer as much as possible while he was at it. What kind of a sick person does that to kids?

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One must remember, though, that in the world of The Cabin in the Woods, he had to do these things, otherwise it would bring about the end of the world. Human kind would die to the ancient ones—everyone’s worst nightmare. The truth is someone had to do it. It’s just too bad he and Sitterson couldn’t finish the job that last time.

18. Cosmo From Sneakers

It’s not that everyone necessarily agrees with Cosmo from Sneakers. It’s just that he’s by far the lesser of two evils in the film, even though he’s portrayed as the uber-bad guy. Yes, this is a man who worked for the mob, kidnapped people and aimed to disrupt the world economy. At the very least, though, Cosmo was honest about his intention to “shut down the whole damn system.”

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For him, it wasn’t all a ploy to destroy specific people whom he considered to be enemies. Yet that is exactly what Martin Bishop did when he acquired the black box, bankrupting the Republican Party and destroying democracy. The irony of it all is Bishop called Cosmo crazy early in the film.

19. Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel From The Rock

It’s almost as though General Hummel’s behavior in The Rock is actually intended as a guide for villainous douchebags. The man breaks into Alcatraz, takes hostages and demands $100 million from the government. Oh, and let’s not forget about the villain threatening to launch a weapon of mass destruction over San Francisco.

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But let’s get over our bias for just a moment and look at the context. Uncle Sam sent him and his men on secret—and illegal—missions all over the world, but refused to pay a penny to the families of fallen soldiers from those missions. Not cool. And Hummel only resorted to terror tactics after exhausting other, legitimate ways to go about getting the cash.

20. Roy Batty From Blade Runner

Roy Batty wreaked havoc on the world along with his group of escaped cyborgs in Blade Runner, going against Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard and eventually losing. Even to someone unfamiliar with the film’s plot, such a scenario sounds horrifying for all of humanity.

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But what’s this so-called evil cyborg’s goal in the film? If you really consider it, his desire to live longer than the four-year life to which he is confined is totally understandable. Four years—it’s lower than your pet’s lifespan. Really, can you blame him for wanting more than that? There’s no indication Batty intended to harm anyone not involved in Replicants.

21. Jeffers From Way Of The Gun

Let’s be very clear here: Tay Figg’s Jeffers from Way of the Gun was a complete jerk throughout the film, pestering Juliette Lewis’s Robin and eventually forcing her to undergo a C-section in a motel room in Mexico—before karma has its way with him.

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At the same time, this villain is merely doing his job, which was to protect Mr. Chidduck’s child and surrogate mother Robin by extension. Throughout the film, he is consistent in making clear their priority is the child. When Robin tries to run away, he brings her back. When she is captured, he fights to retrieve her. Can’t blame a man for doing his job!

22. Jack Doyle From Gone Baby Gone

On paper, Morgan Freeman’s Captain Doyle in Gone Baby Gone kidnaps a child and frames a drug dealer for doing it. Doyle is ultimately responsible for the deaths of multiple people throughout the film—and, well, that sounds pretty darn villainous.

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The other side of this story is that the girl he kidnaps, Amanda, has the worst parents imaginable. Not only does her mother not remember her favorite doll’s name, but she literally steals money from a Haitian Drug lord. By the time Amanda is found with Doyle and his wife, she was much happier than she is with her own family!

23. Dalton Russel From The Inside Man

Again, we have here someone who just screams “I’m a criminal mastermind.” Dalton Russel conducts the “perfect robbery,” occupying a bank and taking hostages in The Inside Man. Sounds like the kind of person with an extremely punchable face, doesn’t it?

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Well, let’s hold on just a second. The villain only wanted to steal one thing, and that was a safety deposit box containing evidence that the bank’s founder worked with the Nazis. Russel was even offered a great deal of money to destroy the box—a bribe, if you will—but he very nobly refused. It’s thanks to him that Denzel Washington’s Frazier is able to investigate and bring down the evil bank founder.

24. Wilford From Snowpiercer

Played by Ed Harris, Wilford ruled Snowpiercer, the train designed to run forever, with an iron fist. Quite literally the train’s dictator, Wilford enforced a harsh class system, in which the poor people in the back of the train were basically starved and used as slaves. If someone stepped out of line, they were physically punished.

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Some might argue a defense of dictatorship in this unique post-apocalyptic situation. Let’s be real: democracy doesn’t always work during extreme emergencies. And Wilford was managing an incredibly scarce supply of resources to ensure humanity would survive the second Ice Age. The man deserves at least some credit.

25. Jason From Friday The 13th

Jason Voorhees is one of the most iconic horror villains in cinematic history. Sporting a hockey mask, the monster goes around hunting teens, no matter where they hide. He’s no longer human, and that fact makes it easier to see him as a monster beyond the possibility of redemption.

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But Jason is a victim here, too. In reality, he is out to get revenge for all the teasing he endured as a kid. It’s that teasing and constant harassment that led him to drown in a lake, and, well, he’s had enough of it. In that sense, Jason is the embodiment of all the kids who have endured bullying, and his victims are stand-ins for their tormenters.

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